The Case of the Mischievous Doll

“Well, they are now,” Drake said. “There’s nothing we can do except wait. I’m going back to the office, Perry, and I’ll keep in touch.”

“What about your men?” Mason asked. “Would it help to put more men out?”

“I’m calling them in,” Drake said. “My men would simply run up an excessive bill for you to pay and they would get in the way of the law enforcement agencies that are working on the case. Let’s just give them a free hand.”

Mason was silent for several seconds, then said, “Okay, Paul.”

Drake glanced at Della Street, then left the office.

Mason started dictating.

Halfway through the second letter the lawyer gave up, started pacing the office. “I can’t do it, Della. I can’t get my mind off— See if you can get Lieutenant Tragg on the phone.”

She nodded sympathetically, went to the telephone and a few moments later nodded to Mason. “He’s on the line, Chief.”

Mason said, “Hello, Lieutenant. Perry Mason talking, and I’m worried about what’s happening in the case of Dorrie Ambler. I’m just not satisfied with the way things are going.”

“Who is?” Tragg countered.

“Have you found out anything?”

“We’ve found out a lot,” Tragg said, “and we’re trying to evaluate it, Perry.”

“Can you tell me what it is?”

“Not all of it, no.”

“What about this Apartment 805?”

“What do you know about that?”

“I’m asking you what you know.”

“And I’m not in a position to tell you everything I know... Look here, Perry. You aren’t trying to slip a fast one over on us, are you?”

“What do you mean by that?”

“This isn’t some elaborate scheme that you’ve thought up to serve as a smoke screen?”

“A smoke screen for what?” Mason asked.

“That’s what I’d like to know,” Tragg said.

“You’re barking up the wrong tree, running off on a false scent, chasing a red herring and— Well, damn it, that’s what I was afraid of, that you’d think this was some scheme or other I’d hatched up and would go at the whole business half-heartedly. I tell you, that girl is in danger.”

“You’re worried over the fact you didn’t protect her from that danger?” Tragg asked.

“Yes.”

“All right, I can help you put your mind at rest on that point,” Tragg said. “Your client wasn’t a victim but an accomplice. She went from Apartment 907 down the stairs to Apartment 805. She remained there until after the heat was off. Then she left there willingly and under her own power.”

“What gives you that idea?”

“An eyewitness.”

Mason was silent for some seconds.

“Well?” Tragg asked.

Mason said, “Frankly, Lieutenant, you’ve relieved me a lot.”

“In what way?”

“I have been aware of the possibility that this might be some part of an elaborate scheme.”

“Not one that you thought up?”

“No, one that was intended to fool me as well as the police.”

“Well, frankly, Perry, that’s a theory that is being given more and more consideration by the investigators. And of course that leaves us with an unexplained murder on our hands. As you are probably aware, we don’t like unexplained murders.

“Now, there’s a very good possibility this whole deal was hatched up simply in order to account for the presence of a corpse in the apartment of your client. If it should turn out that’s the case, we wouldn’t like it.”

“And I wouldn’t like it,” Mason said.

“All right,” Tragg told him, “I’ll put it right up to you, Perry. Is there some reason for you to believe — any good, legitimate reason — that your client may have been laying the foundation for a play of this sort?”

Mason said, “I’ll be fair with you, Tragg. There is just enough reason so that I have given the subject some consideration.

“If that girl has been abducted and is in danger, I can’t just sit back and wait. If, on the other hand, this is part of an elaborate scheme to account for a murder, I’m not only going to wash my hands of her but I’d do anything I could to help solve the case and find out exactly what did happen. Of course I’d have to protect the confidence of my client because she was my client for a while.”

“I understand,” Tragg said, “but she wasn’t your client as far as any murder case was concerned.”

“That’s right. She wasn’t — and I’ll tell you something else. She isn’t going to be.”

“Well,” Tragg said, “I’ll tell you this much. I think you can wash your hands of the case. When she left that apartment, she simply went downstairs and into Apartment 805. We know that later on that evening a woman who has an apartment on the sixth floor saw your client riding down in the elevator. The woman noticed her because despite the fact it was night Dorrie was wearing dark glasses and didn’t want to be recognized. This woman had the idea Dorrie was going to some surreptitious trysting place and— My own private opinion, Mason, is that the witness may be just a little frustrated and a little envious.

“Anyway, she saw Miss Ambler in the elevator. She knows Dorrie Ambler and has chatted with her. Dorrie was fond of this woman’s dog, and the dog was fond of Dorrie. It’s a strange dog. He isn’t vicious but he wants to be left alone. He growls if people move to pet him.